Bonne Semaine, Ma Famille (2/25/08)

This continues my series of reposting mission letters from ten years ago. There was not a letter the previous week because it was Presidents' Day.

Greetings, family!

To answer your question, yes, Elder C. is good and healthy again. For some reason I have been extremely tired in the mornings this past week but I don't feel sick.

Well, there are two weeks left in this transfer which will officially be the end of my training period. I'm terrified because after that it means I'm  responsible for everything I don't know and I don't have an excuse of being trained. Of course I'll still be a greenie but my training will be up. Elder C. thinks that he will be transferred and I will stay in the area and get my mom (your trainer is your dad and your second companion is your mom). I'm scared of being the  more knowledgeable one about the area. Of course, he could be wrong, but he's always stayed in the same area three transfers and this is his third coming to a close.

It would be sad for either of us to leave at this time because the work is really picking up. Since last Sunday we got five new investigators. We're probably putting someone on date for baptism tonight. And we have an awesome fellowshipper for another investigator. Some  ward members called and told us they had someone for us to teach, and the lesson went really  well, especially since it was in the members' home  and they were able to participate and help us out answering anti  questions she'd heard about the temple. The work has really picked up and I'm excited.

With the package you send could you also send the Gospel Principles manual for Sunday School? That's the one we as missionaries attend and I would like my own copy of the manual.[1] I'm also coveting some things I'm not sure are legal, the Joseph Smith Translation[2] and the more bulky and costly History of the Church.[3] I understand completely if you can't send those and I don't really need them but I think they might be interesting supplemental material, assuming they're approved reading.

In honor of President Hinckley we (the mission) are reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days.[4] I am also trying to get through the Old Testament. This week I hope to finish Jacob and Psalms for each of those. I honestly don't know why everyone likes the Psalms so much. It's like reading the hymn book but worse because it doesn't rhyme and I don't know the tunes! I'm  trying to assign myself a number of chapters a day to get  through. I do three of the Book of Mormon and this week I'll try to do six Psalms, since I failed this week getting through with seven a day because I failed the week before with doing sixteen a day. Luckily most of the Psalms are short but I still have to get past 119--the killer one.

I'm sorry, I really don't know what to write. I guess I feel not like writing much because there's so much good that it would take too long to do everything or I wouldn't do justice to some things.

Well, it was nice to email  you  again, and hopefully I'll have more exciting news next week--which  will be the last P-day of the transfer (although technically it'll be the same for the first three days of the next transfer).

--Elder Melville

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[1] Smart phones had barely been invented at this time, and there was no such thing as an iPad. It’s so weird to me that I would have to ask for a physical manual!

[2] My family later sent me the JST of the New Testament.

[3] I still have History of the Church on my bookshelf, after they sent it up with the members we lived with, but after working in the field of Mormon history, I realize how obsolete it is.

[4] Gordon B. Hinckley died at age 97.

Lamentations (February 11, 2008)

It was an interesting week when Elder Melville decided to write his weekly email in the third person. First-person narratives get a little tedious to write so he decided to give an attempt at a more unusual approach.

He felt that all of his emails said the same thing--"This week wasn't so good but next will be better"--week after week. The week of February 4 through the 11th was another failure week but he was much too busy really to notice.

The evening of the fourth, after the Monday letters had been sent, he and his companion were driving to dinner when Elder C. hit a pothole. They can be difficult to avoid in the state named after the first president, but this one was particularly disastrous.[1] First came the kalunk-kalunk that  was the hitting the pothole--then the more ominous swiswiswisswis followed by the completely bothersome gunkgunkgunkgunk as they drove down the road before pulling off to examine their flat tire. Elder C. could not figure out how to utilize the jack--something was weird about it--and  Elder Melville was even more ignorant about pretty much everything so he did not even try to figure it out. The members with whom they were having dinner picked them up and then assisted with the tire change after their meal. On Wednesday Elder Melville and Elder R. went and got the wheel fixed and they are still waiting for Discount Tire Co. to call saying they have the tire in (the missionaries as of this date are driving on a loaner tire from the store which works fine).

But the  reason Elder Melville went with Elder R. is another interesting account.

Back to Monday...

Some  elders from the other district in the zone came and played dodgeball for P-day. One companionship[2] spent the day with Elder C., and on their way back up to their area took Elder Melville's backpack, in addition to their own, since it was identical. Elder Melville's scriptures and <i>Preach My Gospel</i> were in the bag so he had to borrow other copies for a few days. The elders had come down with a member who works in their area, so on Tuesday Elder C. and Elder Melville went to take the backpack from the car the member drives. Only that day the member had driven a different car and they didn't know it. So the next day Elder Melville went with Elder R. to the right car. The backpack was in it but the car was locked. The Colville missionaries told Elder Melville that it would be in the same car the next day but that the member would leave one door unlocked. Rather than use up miles to acquire said backpack, Elder Melville called the sister missionaries to pick it up on their way home since it was in their area. They picked it up and asked for a ransom of a crown that said "Queen M."[3] to be exchanged Saturday evening  but Elder Melville surprised them on Friday morning with a much more utilitarian ransom of a baptismal record they needed.

Back to Monday again...

Elder C. became sore after playing dodgeball and went to  bed sore.

Progressing to Tuesday...

Elder C. woke up with a headache and sore muscles and therefore slept in, which made it difficult for Elder Melville to have the willpower to get up, but he did anyway. Elder C. did eventually arouse his faculties[4] and was able to conduct district meeting that morning. The two missionaries stopped for a meeting with a silly old lady but she was sick and kicked them out after they gave her a blessing.[5] They  went home where Elder C. lay in bed, with a temperature over 100. That evening they went to the place of the zone leaders, Elder G. and Elder R., since Elder G. didn't feel well either. Elder R. and Elder Melville worked that evening and then stayed the night  in Mead which was Elder Melville's area. While  Elder Melville and Elder R.  fixed the tire, the sickos went to the doctor and later learned that Elder G. had mono and Elder C. had pneumonia--which led to a multi-day exchange that will last until Friday, February 15.[6]

Elder Melville spent too long on the computer and began to run out of time as he shared his account of the week. It was quite an experience and he wished he could have given it more justice. He hopes to be able to through snail mail but he doubts he will because of the various events  happening.

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[1] Don’t complain about potholes not being fixed in Utah until you have been to Washington.

[2] Elder E. and Elder D. Elder D. was notorious for being “apostate”—in the mission sense when he was on his mission, and the literal sense once his mission was finished.

[3] See this letter.

[4] See Alma 32:27.

[5] Sister Stubbs. I think she had recently been reactivated and we were teaching her. She wasn’t rude in “kicking us out.”

[6] It ended sooner than that.

Happy February (2/4/08)

Family!!

I looked at Dave's blog because he gave the link but I'm not sure if I was allowed too [sic]. It was too big of a temptation. Before I did it I asked the elder next to me and he said it was OK but I don't know if that's true or not (he's not in our district and I don't think he's even in our zone; they're just visiting down here in Spokane from Colville for the day). So if you don't send me the links I won't  be tempted.

But whether I was allowed to or not, I highly enjoyed it. Preston looks so cute as a big brother. I loved all of the pictures but the ones where he was holding Franklin were my favorite.

This was not a very good week for us. We taught ONE lesson to an investigator and a few less-actives. I think we had more member visits this week than anything else combined. Our most promising investigator cancelled because their pipes were clogged. We called and talked to her that day but she hasn't returned our calls since then and they didn't come to church. Hopefully we can contact them sometime.

It wasn't very good this week as far as people talking to other people and giving us referrals goes because the schools were cancelled all week. Silly Washington, don't they know that they wouldn't have to shut everything down if they'd just PLOW THE SILLY ROADS!?! Instead of like Utah where when the snow starts the trucks are out, they have large vehicles--the kind used in construction, like Caterpillars--out randomly plowing a few days after the snow has stopped.[1]

I prepared a package and hopefully I can send it off today or this week. I'm sending a little bit of stuff I've acquired and don't want to have to carry around, as well as my splint.[2] Hopefully I won't need it anymore. I'm also sending my memory cards with an explanation of the pics. Some of them I specially want copies of for other missionaries. As far as everything else goes I don't know if I want copies or not.

I had to take over our area twice this week for exchanges. One was with Elder W. who was in the area before I was. He knew the  area and some of the people but he's not the  hardest worker and Elder C. had a really hard time with him. The next day one of the zone leaders came and it was OK. On our way home on Saturday night I got caught driving in the snow on the side of the road and Elder C. had to assist me to get out. Sad when a California person has to give driving lessons--but in my defense Utah roads are so much better than Washington roads it really is a new experience. There is a crack in the rim of our tire now, and I feel sick if it was because of my little adventure into the hard snow, especially since it's a brand new car.

Well, I feel like I'm a broken record from previous weeks, but hopefully this upcoming week I'll have more to write about and we will be more successful. Hopefully. Because I'm getting sick of this lack of busyness. Being busy wasn't fun for me  before my mission but as a missionary being busy is so much better than not being busy.

Hasta (probablemente) la próxima semana,

Elder Melville

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[1] I had always believed what people told me about Utah being a terrible state, but this was one thing that made me realize that’s not necessarily true. I had two record-breaking winters on my mission, and both of them shocked me with how poorly they deal with snow in Washington and northern Idaho.

[2] I went on my mission with a sprained ankle.